Precious Illusions
by carlycarter
Summary: Adelle DeWitt/Olivia Dunham Femslash. While searching for her missing sister and niece, Olivia's investigations lead her to the dollhouse.
1. Chapter 1

Precious Illusions

_One week earlier_

_As many times before when confronted with a suspicious angry opponent, Adelle De Witt sat back smiling, relishing that feeling of complete omnipotence. _

_'I've waited a long long time for this, Olivia,' She thinks to herself. _

_It was pure unadulterated fear she sensed emanating across the desk from Agent Dunham. Despite all her bravado, all her proclamations that "they" were coming to rescue her, that "they" were going to bring the dollhouse crashing to its knees, Olivia was afraid. _

"_I fear you've made a terrible mistake Agent Dunham."_

_She shook her head, smiling bravely. "I don't think so." _

"_Forgive me, Should I say, former Agent Dunham. I believe you are no longer gainfully employed by the FBI?"_

"_We've known each other a long time, Adelle. You can call me Olivia."_

Present Day 

Adelle De Witt kisses the little girl on the forehead as she tucks her into bed. Sleepily the little girl murmurs, 'I love you,' and it causes Adelle's breath catch in her throat.

The child had adjusted better than expected. At first, Adelle could not stand the constant tears and questions about 'Mommy'. It crossed her mind, more than once, that it would be easier for all concerned to simply imprint the child. But that over stepped a line Adelle wasn't even sure she still believed in. So she waited. And eventually the child had stopped asking about her so called 'mother'. She had accepted it when she was told "_Mommy is gone. You have a new mommy now_."

As she drifts into a restless sleep, she murmurs so softly that Adelle is almost certain she imagined it. Only that it is a name that the child often calls out in her sleep. The one person the child had never stopped asking about. "Aunty Liv."

_One week earlier _

"_I'm not leaving here without my sister." Olivia demanded._

"_Actually, You're not leaving at all, Former Agent Dunham."_

"_Going to turn me into one of your robots?" She asked._

"_We call them 'actives', and their service is voluntary." _

"_Volunteers? Oh well that makes it alright then." Olivia replied sarcastically._

"_The attic, however, is a non voluntary assignment."_

"_The attic? Is that supposed to scare me?"_

"_Yes, that is supposed to frighten the life out of you, Miss Dunham."_

Present Day

Adelle quickly looks around her, ensuring she is alone, before she finds herself on her knees, unlocking the pod containing the latest addition to the dollhouse, 'India.'

There is something so alluring about the innocent stillness. Adelle touches her soft skin and India doesn't stir. She is sleeping so soundly. So peacefully. Like death.

"Olivia." She whispers under her breath the name that she would never allow herself to use to the other woman's face.

Adelle knows that with one order she could have "India" turned into anything she wanted her to be. Someone to fulfil her every need. It was the very corner stone the dollhouse was founded upon, meeting peoples needs. And yet, somehow, for the first time, that feels hollow. Feels utterly meaningless.

The thing she needed, the person she craved, was Olivia herself. The real true Olivia, nothing more, nothing less. Full of fire and passion. Afraid, defeated, and still refusing to tiptoe around her, not afraid to speak her mind. Adelle finds that refreshing, tantalising.

She leans forward, tracing her fingers across India's lips. She longs to kiss her, but reminds herself quickly that it's the real woman she longs for. Kissing "India" seems little better than kissing a corpse. And so she holds back.

She wants Olivia resurrected. Wants to touch the woman she had known so long ago. The woman she had come to know all over again through Ella's stories. The woman who had become larger than life in her own head. She had been surprised to find Olivia in the flesh just as vibrant and stunning as Ella's visions had promised.

"_Aunt Liv is coming to get me._" The child would tell her, day after day.

"_I'm afraid not, sweetheart._" Adelle would comfort the girl. Not believing for a second that Olivia could work it all out, that Olivia would ever find them.

_One week earlier_

"_You kidnapped my sister." Olivia accused her angrily. _

"_Not true. Your sister came to me." Adelle answered calmly. She can see that this news has shocked Olivia. "That surprises you? I suppose you didn't know your sister half as well as you thought?"_

"_My niece. She is just a little girl." Olivia pleaded. _

"_Ella is well taken care of I assure you of that." Adelle answered defensively, as if she were deeply offended that Olivia would imply otherwise. _

_There was confusion written all over Olivia Dunham's face, and it made Adelle feel powerful. Carefully and deliberately, Adele let her eyes trail to the photograph taking pride of place on her desk. Hastily Agent Dunham reached over and took it in her hands. _

_Adelle Dewitt. Although you would be forgiven for not recognising her. There is something amiss- the radiant smile perhaps. Or the small girl adoringly draping her arms around Adelle's neck. Ella. _

"_What have you done to her? Erased her mind? Turned her into one of your slaves?" Olivia demanded angrily. _

"_On the contrary. Ella is perfectly fine. She asks about her Aunty Liv every day. Pity. What shall I tell the poor child now?"_

_With one last glance to the photograph, Olivia shakes her head dismissively, "It's a fake."_

"_Is it? Are you sure, Aunty Liv?"_

Present Day

"Bring India to me." Adele instructs Topher first thing the next morning.

"Is there a new assignment, no one told me..." He protests

"I am telling you now." Adelle orders.

"I need time, she isn't ready..."

"You've misunderstood me, I am not asking you, I am telling you, bring her to me. Reinstate her own personality."

"What for?"

"Because I told you to." Adelle replies impatiently.

"This is very ill advised."

"I didn't ask for your advice. Just do it, and bring her to my office."

_One week earlier_

"_What do you want from me?" Olivia asked._

_Adelle laughed "What could I possibly want from you? I have everything I want, Everything you want."_

"_I don't think so." Olivia replied boldly, getting up from her chair. She gently placed the photograph of Ella face down on the desk before inching closer to where Adelle sat so calmly on the other side of the desk. Olivia already figured this was a war she could not win with words, with angry threats, with guns or sheer force. It was time for another tactic all together. _

"_You forget." Olivia began, as she perched herself sitting on Adelle's desktop only inches from the woman. "That I know you. I know everything about you." _

"_I highly doubt it." Adelle managed to answer cooly. If she was uncomfortable with Agent Dunham's proximity, she made no outward sign of it. _

"_You're not so different from the rest of us. All you want is for someone to touch you, to really touch you." _

"_Don't flatter yourself."_

"_You're an extremely lonely woman, Adelle."_

_For once, Adelle had no comeback, and all she could manage was to turn her head away._

"_It's a shame." Olivia continued "To see someone so breathtakingly beautiful, all alone."_

_When Adelle turned her head back, Olivia's face was only inches from her own, and throwing all her common sense to the wind, Adelle allowed the other woman to kiss her, passionately._

Adelle doesn't remember a time that she ever felt more alive, more cherished. She only knows that she feels a sudden, insatiable need that only Olivia can fulfil. 

_Adelle doesn't know how far things would have gone if not for that incessant knocking on the door which drew her back into reality. Hastily she pushed Olivia aside, and beckoned for the security guards to enter. _

"_Take former agent Dunham and prepare her for the attic." She ordered_

_Adelle ignored the looks from her security personnel, the attic was rather an extreme punishment. Only she had no intention on following through with. It was for Olivia's benefit she said it. An unspoken message to Olivia 'I don't care about you, Olivia, not one little bit, and I don't care what you think about me.' Is what Adelle wanted the other woman to know. _

_Adelle turned her head away, refusing to meet Olivia's eyes, as Olivia's confident last words echoed in her ears "I'll see you soon Adelle." _


	2. Chapter 2

Present Day

Olivia Dunham cautiously opens her eyes. She takes a moment to get her head together. Reminding herself who she is, why she is here. For a brief moment she wonders if she is a real person. Or if "_Olivia Dunham"_ is a personality they have imprinted her with. If all her beliefs, her memories, her life, belong to someone else.

She takes a deep breath, concluding that she will go crazy if she allows herself to start thinking like that. And once she has taken a moment to calm down, she decides that if they were going to imprint her with someone else's personality, they wouldn't make it a personality so antagonistic and suspicious towards the '_dollhouse_'.

She quickly surveys her body, the strands of long blond hair falling over her shoulder, her arms, her fingers, all belong to her. Good. She runs through her mind, testing herself, trying to remember facts, figures, her birthday, Rachel's, Ella's. It's all still there. She breathes out in relief.

She looks up finally to the scientist they call Topher. To Olivia it feels like no time has passed at all. Like it was only seconds ago they dragged her from Adelle's office and strapped her into this very chair she now sits in. But she notices immediately that Topher is wearing entirely different clothing. She looks down to her own clothing, and so is she. She is dressed in a pyjama like outfit making her instantly uncomfortable.

So, some time has passed. But just how much? To Olivia it felt like the blink of an eye. And it hits her all over again just how powerful these people are. Just how fucked up this place really is. But she keeps her cool. It was the only chance she had of getting out of here, of getting Rachel and Ella out of this mess.

Closing her eyes one minute, then opening them completely disoriented to time, doubting her own self, for the first time Olivia begins to wonder if she is ever going to get out of this? Or has she finally met her match? Finally been lured into that trap that she just cant get herself out of? Olivia wonders if this what happened to Rachel.

"_Your sister came to me." _Adelle's words ring in her head.

And if Rachel were standing before her in that moment, Olivia would ask her one thing. _Why? Why, Rachel ,would you go running to her? Why would you trust her and not me? _

Olivia had always known Adelle straddled the borderline between genius and madness. It doesn't surprise Olivia to find Adelle front and centre of an operation like this. But she had always believed deep down there was goodness inside Adelle. She has to believe that Adelle just isn't capable of leaving her to rot in a place like this, that Adelle isn't capable of kidnapping Rachel, of hurting Ella.

For the first time Olivia allows herself to think, that just maybe, this time, Peter isn't coming to save her. That even if he tried, they'd only capture him too. That he probably has no reason to try anymore after the things that happened.

_Three months ago_

"_Rachel has gone, she's taken Ella." Frantically Olivia had informed Peter. It took a moment to register that there wasn't even a hint of surprise on Peter's face. _

"_You knew?" Olivia asked in disbelief. And piece by piece things fell into place. Those looks between Rachel and Peter, they had been a lot closer than Olivia ever wanted to believe. And even though Olivia had no romantic feelings what-so-ever for Peter Bishop, it sat uneasily that he and her sister had this secret relationship behind her back. _

"_You knew too, Olivia. She tried to tell you." Peter defended himself. _

_Olivia didn't need Peter to remind her of all the ways she had let her sister down. How she'd been so caught up in work when Rachel frantically called her. But surely Peter of all people understood the importance of the work they were doing. The very survival of the world they knew depended on it. She had tried her best to calm her sister, to reassure her. Had begged her just to wait until she came home and they would talk and sort the whole thing out. But by the time she arrived home, Rachel and Ella were gone. _

"_We have to find her. What did she say to you?" Olivia wanted to know. _

"_Just stop and calm down." Peter told her. _

"_They could be anywhere by now, there isn't time. I might never see her again, never see Ella again. And if Rachel doesn't show up at the custody hearing, she'll be a fugitive. When they find her they'll put her in jail, take Ella and give custody to Greg. Rachel isn't thinking clearly. We have to find her."_

"_Leave it alone Olivia. Rachel knows what she is doing."_

"_You helped her, didn't you. Helped her run away? You know where she is?" _

_Peter made no reply, but his expression gave everything away._

"_Tell me!" Olivia angrily demanded, as she slapped Peter across the face._

_He stood stunned for a moment, rubbing his cheek. "Sometimes running really is the best answer, Olivia." He finally spoke, as he took a step back to prevent another attack._

"_You'd know all about that." Olivia answered bitterly, before turning and walking away._

"_Where are you going, we have to be in New York in an hour." Peter reminded her. Sure she was upset, but she wouldn't turn her back on a case, would she?_

"_I'm going to find my sister." Olivia answered. _

_Peter grabbed Olivia by the arms, forcefully pulling her close. "Leave it alone, Olivia. You don't know what you're getting yourself into."_

"_She is my sister." Olivia answered him. "And I thought you cared about her."_

"_She made her choice. She is a big girl. Leave it be." _

_Angrily Olivia pulled away from his grasp "I suppose we've all made our choices Peter." She told him as she turned her back and walked away._

"_Olivia." Peter called to her hesitantly._

_Olivia turned, hope in her eyes. Had she finally reached him, would he tell her where Rachel had gone, would he help her find her sister after all? _

"_It's not what you think. Rachel lied to you. There is no impending custody battle."_

"_I don't understand." Olivia answered, confused. "Then why would she take Ella and run?"_

Present Day

"Agent Dunham, Good morning." Topher greets her, pulling her from her thoughts.

Olivia wants to ask him what day it is, what year it is. Wants to know where she has been, why she is here now. But she holds her tongue and smiles at him instead.

"Is it?" She wants to know.

He seems uncomfortable around her. As if her calm acceptance of the situation unnerves him. It makes Olivia feel like maybe she has a chance.

"Miss Dewitt wants to see you in her office." Topher explains.

"Of course she does." Olivia answers smiling brightly at him.

He stands confused by her behaviour as she is escorted into Adelle's office. It makes him wonder just what is going on between these two women.

Adelle refuses to look up at Olivia standing in her doorway. She wants Olivia to believe she is entirely insignificant to her. It gives Olivia a moment to stare at the woman. It's relief she feels when she sees Adelle sitting at her desk. And it's more than just the feeling that this is her chance to help Rachel and Ella. Waking up like that, knowing she had lost time, not knowing what things she had done in those missing days, was frightening. And seeing Adelle brought a sense of familiarity. It grounded her. Reminded her who she was, where she came from. Looking at Adelle brought the strangest sense of peace. And for the longest moment, Olivia stands, just watching. She hadn't been lying when she had told Adelle she was breathtakingly beautiful. It was an undeniable fact, the woman was stunning.

Finally, Adelle looks up, looks Olivia straight in the eye. And in that one moment, it's like everything around them ceases to exist. With one look, Adelle manages to quell all the fears and questions in Olivia's heart. Distantly, Olivia tells herself that she ought to be frightened by this. That Adelle is weaving some kind of spell over her, trying to get under her skin. Olivia reminds herself that it is she supposed to be sucking Adelle in, not the other way around. But locking eyes with Adelle in that moment, Olivia felt connected. Felt Alive. Olivia felt, curiously, safe. And so she allowed herself to push all her lingering suspicions to the ground. Just for that one moment.

"Leave us alone." Adelle dismisses the security personnel.

And to Olivia she says "Please, sit, Would you like some tea?"


	3. Chapter 3

Adelle De Witt is all too aware of Olivia's presence in the doorway. Her skin tingles with restless anticipation. Her every hair stands on end. Her chest tightens and for the briefest moment she feels like she can't breathe.

Yet she refuses to look up. Refuses to give Olivia that satisfaction of knowing just how her presence has affected her. From the corner of Adelle's omniscienteye, for a split second in time, as she pretends she isn't paying the slightest bit of attention, Olivia looks, almost, hauntingly, like Rachel.

Like Rachel, as she stood pathetically and tearfully pleading _"Please, help me." _

It was cause for Adelle to wonder, as Rachel has sat sobbing in her office, just how a person could allow their life to end up such an abominable mess. It left Adelle feeling undoubtedly superior. Left her feeling contempt and irritation for the other woman. And maybe a shred of pathetic pity. Adelle didn't see why she should feel obliged to empathise with Rachel, let alone help her. Why, when Rachel was the one who caused her own downfall by her reckless choices?

It always struck Adelle as an odd thing, to consider that Rachel and Olivia Dunham shared even the slightest similarity in genetic material. Rachel had always been foolish, weak, emotional. Everything Adelle resented and despised in a woman. Olivia was the exact opposite in every way, intelligent, strong, determined, calculating. Not unlike herself in many ways, and yet entirely unlike anyone Adelle had ever met.

However, standing in that doorway, for a flicker in time, Olivia resembles her sister Rachel in unexplainable, undefinable ways. Adelle can't shake the thought from her mind, and the resemblance is disturbing enough to cause Adelle to put an end to her charade of silent indifference, and lift her steely gaze.

To her credit, Olivia Dunham holds her head high. Higher than most that come through that office door. If she is afraid, if she is angry, she makes no show of it. For a minute, Adelle wonders with irritation if Topher has done what she asked, or if this is still the ignorant '_India'_ active been brought to her door.

Then Adelle dares to catch Olivia's eye. And Olivia's eyes are on fire. Olivia's eyes are alive. There is no mistaking those eyes for the eyes of an active. There is no mistaking those eyes with her pathetic sobbing mess of a sister. Those eyes are unique. Olivia's and Olivia's alone. And for the first time Adelle realised just how precious that is, that unnamed indescribable quality in a persons eyes that distinguishes them from every other human being, the very essence of who they are. That tiny insignificant thing completely obliterated each and every day under this very roof by the imprinting process.

Olivia sits and graciously accepts the tea cup with a steady hand. And although she would never acknowledge it to Olivia, Adelle is impressed.

Olivia's eyes dart around the room, searching for a calendar, or some other sign of just how much time has passed. Finding nothing that will suffice, Olivia comes straight out and asks. "How much time has gone by?" She asks casually, smiling bitterly, and, Adelle thinks, almost seductively.

"Does it really matter?" Adelle hardens her gaze, reminding herself not to get carried away. Reminding herself just what was at stake here. She refused to let Olivia Dunham, of all people, outwit her. This was no time to get swept up in sentimentality.

Olivia sighs. She wants to tell Adelle that, _yes, it - damn- well- matters_. Every minute, every day, was precious time that belonged to her, and _yes, every single second mattered._

But Olivia holds her tongue. That was just what Adelle was hoping for, her to lose her cool. She stubbornly refused to give in. Besides, Olivia isn't certain Adelle would understand just how precious time is, how precious life is. Olivia isn't sure Adelle has any reason to understand. Olivia knows Adelle is not cruel, and far from heartless. She knows that beneath that harsh and confident veneer deep fears are lurking. Yet to be here, in this job, running this 'dollhouse', How can she have any comprehension of what she is taking from people when she steals precious time from them? Olivia wonders if Adelle knows the first thing about living, really living.

"So, what? I'm one of your slaves now? So you can have your wicked way with me?" Olivia asks mischievously.

Her cavalier attitude, as if she isn't taking this seriously at all, as if she doesn't understand the power Adelle has to destroy her completely, infuriates Adelle. Causes her to harden her tone when she replies. "Oh, yes, Agent Dunham. I've had my '_wicked way'_ with you, Over and over again. In ways you've never even dreamed of." Adelle answers "And believe me, the pleasure was all mine."

Adelle smiles sweetly, delighting in this seductive power game. But truthfully, although she had been tempted after that first kiss in the office, she had not given in to temptation. Tracing her fingers over Olivia's lips as she lay sleeping in the pod as 'India' had been the extent of their contact in the past week, physical or otherwise. And still, somehow, that was the most intimate moment Adelle had experienced with another woman. It left her feeling closer to Olivia that anyone, ever. And yet desperately and anxiously far removed from her at the same time.

Olivia returns the smile, almost shyly, "Well I'm sure you all had a nice time." She acknowledges, as she surveys her body. "But trust me, baby, you ain't seen nothing yet. You might be able to get inside my head, inside my body, But that was not _me_, and I guarantee you Adelle, you ain't seen nothing yet. The thing you truly crave, is mine to give. And you can't steal it from me, you cant fabricate it with some other personality in my body. You can't have it unless I give it to you."

Adelle doesn't doubt that what Olivia has to give is unique, and beyond anything she could ever imagine. And she doesn't deny that, hell yes, she wants it badly. But she holds her gaze firm, her voice steady and cold. "Is that so? Well well well, you seem very certain of yourself for someone who is a prisoner at my mercy." Reminding Olivia just who had the power here, reminding them both. Because for a moment, Adelle had started to forget.

"A prisoner at your mercy?" Olivia considers this. "I've not got anything to lose then, have I ? And besides, once again, you forget one very important thing, Adelle."

"Do enlighten me, please _'Baby'_, I'm intrigued."

Olivia sets the tea cup down gently, folding her hands in her lap. She pauses for a moment, then meets Adelle's steady gaze, locking eyes with the woman across the desk.

"You might be able to fool everyone around you. Perhaps you've built your life upon such deception, self delusion, that you scarcely can tell truth from lie. But I know you, and I know when you're lying through your teeth. You, baby, are completely full of shit." The words are spoken confidently, with a hint of resentment, and a familiarity Adelle finds both comforting and confronting.

Though her heart is racing, Adelle forces herself to play her cards close to her chest, to give nothing away. She wonders bitterly if her efforts are in vain. If Olivia sees right through everything. This thought is as mesmerising as it is frightening. To think that someone actually knows her, knows what she thinks and feels. To think that someone isn't afraid of her. Her feelings swing violently between fear, resentment, and something else unrecognisable. Something like peace, something like hope. Something akin to that feeling of Ella wrapping her tiny arms around her neck, and whispering in that small child voice '_I love you'._

Adelle doesn't bother to protest that she is not, as Olivia so eloquently phrased it '_Full of shit'_. She would only find herself drawn deeper into a web of lies. And normally that wouldn't bother her, because normally no one would be able to call her on it. Instead she places her own tea cup down on the table, and remarks. "So who would have thought. You and me. On opposite sides of a war?"

"You said yourself, I'm not FBI anymore. I guess I'm not one of the '_good guys'_ anymore." Olivia tells her.

Adelle knows that, FBI or not, Olivia could never let go of her search for truth, for justice. It was so simplistic in her mind. Poor girl. Olivia had no idea just how much destruction the truth could bring. How there was no such thing as justice, for anyone. There was no point fighting for it. That Olivia always considered herself one of the good guys, on the side of the righteous, Adelle did not doubt for a second.

"That's really how you see it? You as one of the good guys, and me as the Villain?" Adelle asks her, "That's how you've always seen it?"

Olivia considers the question for a moment before answering. Adelle finds herself holding her breath, as if it somehow mattered to her in the slightest what Olivia Dunham thought of her.

"I think of you as many things." Olivia finally spoke "And trust me when I tell you, Adelle, I think of you often. But no, I don't think of you as one of the _'bad guys'_" Olivia acknowledges.

Adelle doesn't ask just what exactly Olivia does think of her. Only moments ago she had been condemning Rachel in her mind for her pathetic weakness. Now here sits Olivia, smiling, seeing right through her every thought, every mistake, every fear, every regret. Who was the weak, pathetic one now?

"I suppose you don't know me as well as you thought you did then. You don't seem to know anyone as well as you thought." Adelle hints at Rachel, not trying to hurt Olivia, only trying, desperately, to bring the subject back to a topic where she was the one with the upper hand. The reason she had brought Olivia back to see her was because of the fact that Olivia knew her, Olivia knew her on some deep level that no one else ever had. Olivia touched her somehow. And yet now that Olivia was standing in front of her, Adelle found the entire situation disconcerting, found herself shying away.

"Please, tell me, what happened to my sister, my niece." Olivia pleads. And Adelle is relieved that the spotlight has shifted back to Rachel and Ella.

"Rachel made her own choices. I can assure you of that."

"She wasn't thinking clearly." Olivia protests.

"How would you know? You weren't here, watching her, listening to her. You don't even know why she left you behind. How can you pretend that you know the first thing about it?" Once again, Adelle isn't being intentionally cruel. It just makes her breathe a little easier to be the one in control again, the one who knows everything. It makes her feel safer somehow to watch Olivia crumble under the weight of confusion and uncertainty.

Olivia is angry, Adelle knows it. But she takes a deep breath, and instead of attacking Adelle in anger, she appeals once again to her sense of compassion. "Ella, just a little girl, Adelle, she needs her mother, she shouldn't be dragged into all this. You know that."

"I have already assured you, Ella is well taken care of. The child wants for nothing." There is irritation in Adelle's voice even though she is trying desperately to keep her tone unemotional.

"Not even me?" Olivia asks.

Ah yes, foolishly Adelle had already told Olivia the child asked about her. There was no denying it now. But Ella would just have to learn that you can't have everything you want in life.

"I tell you this Olivia, and look into my eyes now, you who think you know me so well, you who think you see every last thing going on inside my head, look at me. Tell me, am I lying to you? Look closely. I love that little girl with everything in me. I would do anything for her. I would die before I let anyone hurt her. You don't have to worry for a second about Ella."

Strangely, Olivia finds herself believing it, although she won't yet admit it. She believes Adelle is well intended at least. As for the damage that's inadvertently being done to Ella in the mean time, that's another matter.

"If you'd do anything for her, let me see her." Olivia challenges.

Adelle knows that she can not consider it. There are issues bigger than her own fears and desires at play. Bigger issues than even security of the dollhouse. Adelle never imagined she would grow so attached to the child. It was never part of the plan. Yet now, Adelle is convinced that she loves Ella just as deeply as Rachel and Olivia do. And while that meant she cared for Ella and wanted the best for her. It also meant that she could no longer consider the thought of life without Ella in it. Losing Ella was not an option.

Secretly Adelle longs to see Olivia with the little girl. To see this caring compassionate side of Olivia Dunham. And Olivia's pleading eyes across the desk are almost impossible to refuse. Just like Ella's eyes as she pleads "_Please, just one more story before bed._" The child would beg every night, and Adelle always gave in.

Quickly Adelle reminds herself that Olivia wants more than just to see Ella. She wants Ella for good. Want to take her away forever, leaving Adelle and the dollhouse behind for dust

and there is no way that is going to happen.

"Just what, would you do for me in return?" Adelle cant help asking.

"Anything." Came the assured answer. "Anything you want, Adelle."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Having never spent much time around children, Adelle had never seen the error of her assumption that the actives of the dollhouse were much like children. It was how she honestly imagined childhood was, not able to remember her own childhood clearly.

Ella changed all of that. Ella, this amazing, truly alive, little girl. Gentle, loving, fiery at times, angry and hurt and stubborn and wilful. Ella who delighted in learning new things every day. Ella, so resilient and yet so easily damaged. Ella was nothing like the brain dead actives that wandered the dollhouse each and every day.

These maternal feelings towards Ella took her by surprise. She had never pictured herself as the motherly type. Somehow, this small person looking up to her with trusting eyes as if she held the power to fix every wrong thing in the universe, somehow that melted her heart in a way no one else had even come close to doing.

Adelle doesn't remember ever being that small, that innocent, that trusting. Doesn't remember staring up at an adult with arms outstretched. Doesn't remember falling scraping her knee and running crying for someone to comfort her.

Adelle hadn't known the first thing about being a mother to a small girl. She loved Ella, desired to please her, longed for Ella to love her back. But she had no idea how to go about this. Her usual ways of dealing with people, power, money, manipulation, seemed to fall short.

She had tried to buy the child's love, giving her a pony of her own, which Ella adored. But it hadn't stopped the child asking incessantly about her mother and her aunty Liv. And Adelle wanted to scream at the child '_But, Ella, I'm the one who is here with you. Your mother left you for dust, and I'm the one here giving you everything a little girl could ever want.' _

Adelle told herself just to hire a nanny, to just bury herself in her work and forget the child. If the little girl didn't know a good thing when she found it, that was her loss. But Adelle just couldn't do it. Couldn't turn away from those heartbroken tear filled eyes, that trembling lip. So she instead she reached her arms out to Ella, an instinct. And the child had scrambled frantically into her embrace. Tears forming in her own eyes, Adelle had promised Ella that everything would be alright. That she would always take care of her and never leave her.

Day by day Adelle and the little girl grew closer. Ella loved her, respected her, revered her. Adelle caught the little girl in her bedroom, wearing Adelle's high heeled shoes, trying to fasten her hair with Adelle's hair clip.

"What are you doing?" Adelle asked, amused.

"I'm going to be just like you when I grow up." Ella told her.

There was something so beautiful and yet so frightening in that statement. And while she was flattered, she wanted to tell Ella "_Oh that's the last thing you want to be, sweetheart. You don't want to be like me, or like your mother. Your Aunty Liv, that's who you want to be." _But she held her tongue.

Adelle spoiled the girl rotten. Showered her with gifts, all of which Ella accepted gratefully. But nothing made the little girls eyes light up like the simple things.

"Read to me?" Ella had asked on one of their first nights together.

Adelle had been confused. "Can you not read for yourself? Did no one teach you?"

"I can so read!" The child was quick to protest. "But it's more fun if someone reads to you. Aunty Live reads to me every night. And sometimes I read to her too. We can take turns if you like?" Ella offered.

Adelle's mind was filled with images of Olivia with this little girl, curled up, book in her hands as Ella nestled sleepily in her embrace. It made her jealous. She wanted to be that for the little girl too. And so awkwardly Adelle sat next to Ella on the bed, and the child settled trustingly in her arms. And Adelle had never felt more at home than that moment, Ella's heart beating next to her own. And it caught her completely by surprise.

Night after night they read all manner of stories. One night they had been reading Rapunzel. As Adelle made a move to turn the page, Ella's hands stopped her. The child sat staring at the picture, tracing her trembling fingers over the image with a troubled expression in her eyes.

"Ella, what's the matter? Don't you like the story?" Adelle asked her.

"Just thinking. " Ella answered. And as only a small child would do so unguardedly, she then divulged her every last thought to the person in closest proximity.

"How awful. To be locked away like that." Ella mused.

"But we haven't got to the ending." Adelle protested. "It will be alright, you'll see."

"I know the ending! I've read this story a hundred times!" Ella protested. "But life isn't like that, is it?" She asks.

"What do you mean sweetheart?"

"I mean happy endings." The child explained.

Adelle had been speechless. She couldn't be held responsible for shattering the girls illusions of a happy ending. But Ella was right, the world didn't work that way. Ella was a smart kid. Smarter than her mother, that was for sure.

"Real life is a little bit more complicated." Adelle attempted to explain.

"To be locked away like that, It's awful." Ella couldn't get the thought out of her head.

"Really, it's not so bad Ella. She isn't that unhappy."

"How do you know?" Ella asked with round questioning eyes.

"Well." Adelle attempted to find words the child would understand. "She has never really known any other way of life, apart from being trapped in that tower. She doesn't know what she is missing out on." As the words come out of her mouth, Adelle can't help but think of the actives at the dollhouse. Of Rachel.

"I don't get it." Confusion spread across the little girl's face.

"She is happy in the tower, she feels safe. No one can hurt her there."

"But no one is going to hurt her outside in the real world either." The child protested.

_'I didn't write the damn book, Ella' _Adelle wants to say. '_If you don't like it, read another one.'_

Adelle takes a deep breath. "But in her head, she thinks people in the real world will hurt her. That's what she has been told. And she believes it with all her heart that terrible things will happen if she leaves the tower. She believes she is safe there. And so she is happy."

"But that was a lie, there is nothing terrible in the real world that would hurt her, is there?" Ella asks.

"Well. There are plenty of bad things in the world, and the tower is safe. So it wasn't totally a lie. And even if it's not true, it's what Rapunzel believes, it makes it true for her."

The little girl contemplates this. "So, she is happy? Locked in the tower?"

"She is not unhappy." Adelle answers.

"But if she never gets out, ever, she will never know all the good things in life. Isn't that sad?"

"Well. She wouldn't really see those good things as being good. She wouldn't understand them. She is used to an empty world of darkness. Life in the real world would make her afraid. " Adelle doesn't know if she even understands a word of her own explanation, let alone if this makes a bit of sense to the little girl.

"But the prince would show her all the wonderful things, he would show her there is nothing to be afraid of." Ella protested.

"Oh, but she wouldn't believe him Ella. She is filled with so much fear and mistrust. She would see danger in every shadow. You can't live like that."

"So she doesn't even want to be saved?" Ella asked.

Adelle was once again speechless. What kind of a moral of the story was that for a little girl?

"It's complicated." Adelle answered.

While she had been making parallels with her own life through the story, with the dollhouse, and the actives, with Rachel, it hadn't once occurred to her that the child was intelligent enough to do the same.

"Does Mommy want to be saved from wherever she is?" Ella asked innocently.

"It's just a story Ella, It isn't real." Adelle answered abruptly as she firmly closed the book. The last thing she wanted was to bring up the subject of Rachel.

"That's what Aunty Liv always says." Ella told her.

There is intense sadness in the little girls voice, yet Adelle smiles a little on the inside at the comparison to the great '_Aunty Liv.' _

"If I was locked in a tower, Aunty Liv would come and save me." Ella proclaimed confidently.

_'I'd save you too Ella. Some people are happy locked away in a world of self delusion. But not you, You're going to fly.'_

But the child continued before Adelle has the chance to speak. "But I'm not locked away anywhere, I'm here with you. And you won't let anything bad happen to me."

"Of course I wont, sweetheart." Adelle answered quickly.

"You wont go away, like mommy?" Ella asked

"Never, Ella. I will never ever leave you."

Ella smiled. "I can't wait for you to meet Aunty Liv, when she comes to get me."

Ella had never protested that her mother was coming back, that her mother was coming to save her. But she always held firm to the belief that somehow Aunty Liv had never abandoned her.

'_Foolish child.' _Adelle had condemned Ella in her mind. _'Aunty Liv isn't coming to get you. _

How wrong she had been.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

Adelle De Witt had always believed it was desirable to keep her enemies in close proximity. She assures herself that is the reason she can not let Olivia Dunham out of her sight.

Not that she considers Olivia Dunham an enemy, exactly. Adelle can still recall the way Olivia's harsh tone sliced straight through her as Olivia insisted many years ago

"_We are not friends."_

"_Your enemy's enemy is your friend, Olivia." Adelle had answered. "I'm afraid that makes us friends."_

_And Olivia Dunham shook her head, smiling in spite of herself. . _

"Just name it, Adelle, name anything you want and I'll give it to you." Olivia's voice pulls Adelle back into the present moment.

"What makes you think I want anything from you?" Adelle asks the question again. They both know what it is Adelle wants from Olivia. It's written all over her face. But they both know Adelle wants more than one night. Just as they both know that Olivia wants more than just to see Ella for a few minutes. They've reached an impasse.

"For your own sake, Adelle, before this gets out of hand. Let Rachel and Ella go. Get yourself out of this place. I found the dollhouse. It's only a matter of time before someone else stumbles upon it. Get out while you have the chance. This is going to end badly, I promise you that, but it doesn't have to end badly for you." Olivia is pleading for her life, for her sister's life, her niece's, for all the innocent unsuspecting people whose lives could be shattered by this kind of technology in the wrong hands. But Olivia wonders if Adelle hears the unmistakable hint of concern for Adelle's own welfare in her voice.

"You going to shut down the dollhouse, are you? You and what army? The FBI?" Adelle asks incredulously. "The FBI keeps us in business. Do you have any idea how many high ranking FBI officials utilise our services on a regular basis? We have friends in high places. Higher than you could even dream of. To say nothing of the fact that the FBI thinks you are certifiably insane, Miss Dunham. No one believes in your 'fringe science', no one believes in the 'dollhouse'. So tell me, just who is coming to save you? Walter Bishop?" Adelle scoffs at the idea- Talk about certifiably insane. "Or perhaps his wayward son, Peter?" Adelle spits out Peter's name with such hateful resentment it causes Olivia to stare at her in surprise. Because, as far as Olivia knows, Adelle has never even laid eyes upon Peter Bishop.

"_You have to put Rachel out of your mind." Peter had pleaded. "Olivia, we need you in New York, In an hour. You can't walk away from a case. Rachel is an adult, she made her own decisions. She doesn't need you to save her. We need you. Don't fuck this up, Olivia. Do you have any idea how many people are counting on you?" _

_Olivia Dunham was thoroughly sick of being so 'needed'. Sick of feeling like the fate of the entire world rested on her shoulders alone. She had already failed so many times. Failed at the task William Bell assigned her, failed Charlie. She wasn't the "strong one", she wasn't the one they could all place their hope in. She was a failure. A complete and utter disappointment. And it stung. But it stung less than the disappointment she had been as a sister to Rachel. _

"_I need to find Greg. You can manage one case without me." Olivia responded. _

"_I already told you, there is no custody battle, Rachel isn't running from Greg."_

"_You don't know that."_

"_For crying out loud Olivia, Greg isn't even Ella's father. He has nothing to do with any of this." From the look on his face, Olivia gathered that Peter hadn't meant to let that slip. _

_That was the moment Olivia realised she didn't know Peter Bishop, or her sister, at all._

"You seem to know a lot about my work? My colleagues? Why is that? Keeping tabs on me?" Olivia asks.

Adelle smiles at the other woman's obvious discomfort. _Disconcerting, isn't it Olivia, when someone seems to know so much about you? _Adelle avoids the answering the question. Instead she remarks casually "Yes, I know all about your work. Evidently you've been spending too much time in the company of Walter Bishop. You've lost your mind. And I have to say I'm exceedingly disappointed in you, former agent Dunham. Carelessly getting yourself fired from the FBI. After all, I worked so very hard pulling those strings to get you that position."

Olivia recoils involuntarily. She had always prided herself on the fact she succeeded in her career by her own merits, despite the rumours to the contrary circulating at the time. But she takes a deep breath, refusing to let Adelle bait her into a bitter and pointless argument.

"I suppose you know then, about Charlie." Olivia states.

"I couldn't care less about Charles Francis. I think you know there was no love loss between he and I." What Adelle knew about Peter and Walter Bishop she had largely learned second hand. What she knew about Charles Francis, she was sorry to say, was from her own personal experience.

Olivia finds her eyes drawn to Adelle's hands as they lay resting on the desk top. Olivia had always found something enticing about those hands.

_Flashing lights, piercing sirens, adrenalin coursing through Olivia's veins, and the unmistakable stench of death in the air. _

_And Adelle' DeWitt's hands. _

_Those were the things Olivia remembered about that night so long ago. The night Adelle saved her life. _

_Adelle's hands, small and delicate. _

_Steady as a rock, not trembling as her own hands were. _

_Adelle's hands, dripping with deep crimson blood. _

"_You're bleeding" Olivia said to her, voice laden with concern._

_Charlie, standing beside her, shook his head and remarked "It's not her blood. She doesn't have blood in her veins, Olivia." His tone was so cold and unfamiliar to Olivia that she had to turn her head to make certain that the words had actually come from Charlie's mouth. _

_As Charlie led her away, Olivia looked back over her shoulder. Watching in the dim moonlight as Adelle washed the blood, someone else's blood, from her hands at a near by tap. In the semi dark, Adelle made it look seemingly effortless to be washed clean. _

_Later that night, Olivia could not stop thinking about the woman who had saved her life. Olivia tried to imagine Adelle, frantically scrubbing at her hands, trying desperately to remove the blood stains from her fingernails. How many times would she have to scrub before that stench was gone? How many hours until she had washed her hands completely clean? Olivia knew from her own bitter experience that it took a long long time to completely wash that blood guilt down the drain. _

"Charlie died." Olivia announces.

Adelle can't say she ever cared for Charlie. Or that the news of his untimely demise causes her any distress. Rather, it's the catch in Olivia's voice, that flicker of deep pain in Olivia's eyes that stings Adelle. That causes her to look away from Olivia and, almost involuntarily, to utter "I'm sorry to hear that."

"You want to know how he died?" Olivia asks.

Adelle doesn't really want to know. What she wants to know is- why does Olivia care so damn much about Charlie? What was so great about him that his death causes that grief stricken expression in her eyes? Adelle wants to ask Olivia '_If I died, would it hurt you like that?' _But Adelle already knows the answer. She knows it by the number of years that have gone by without one word from Olivia Dunham. Adelle knows without a doubt that she is completely insignificant to Olivia. And it only causes her to resent Charlie all the more, merely for the fact that Olivia cares so much about him.

Adelle raises an eyebrow as she listens to Olivia recount the story of Charlie's death and a shapeshifting soldier from an alternate dimension. Adelle believes in many unbelievable things. The technology operating inside her very house is a prime example. But this story, this was a little out there. It was no wonder the FBI had grave concerns for Olivia Dunahm's mental stability. Adelle wonders fleetingly if they ever found Charlie's body? She wonders if he had not simply been imprinted with another personality? But she doesn't dare interrupt Olivia's narrative.. Because Olivia looks as if she is about to cry.

"The worst thing is, I didn't even notice. I couldn't tell the difference between Charlie and that thing. I didn't even know that Charlie had died. I suppose this sort of thing doesn't shock you. It's kind of like what you do here at your house of dolls, isn't it? Replacing people with imposters, discarding their souls like trash."

"It's hardly the same thing." Is all Adelle can manage to say about the subject. Despite the fact that only moments ago she had made the exact same parallel in her own mind.

"It's exactly the same thing." Olivia answers. And for the first time it's not fear or pleading in her voice. It's not over confidence, or seduction. It's anger. Pure anger.

"As I have already told you, the Dollhouse is a beneficent organisation, staffed by volunteers. You haven't the first idea the good works achieved through the technology in my house. The lives we've saved, the service to the community. We make a difference in the world, undisputedly. This is _my house_, and there is no malicious agenda at play here." Adelle answers wearily.

"You steal lives right out from under people. What you do is tantamount to murder. Not to mention the potential in that kind of technology, for deception, destruction. You think that a few good works negates all of that? Oh but I forgot, you're Adelle DeWitt. You don't you think about the consequences of your actions."

"This conversation is going nowhere." Adelle announces, leaning back in her chair. She tries to keep her voice steady, to hide the rising panic. Because she doesn't know just what she is going to do with Olivia Dunham. The option of keeping her prisoner, against her will, was becoming more unacceptable by the minute. Letting her go was equally unthinkable.

"Or do you really believe that crap you spout about doing good works?" Olivia continues with her angry tirade. "You need to believe it, don't you? To believe that you're in the right? That you somehow deserve to play God? That the things you want and need overshadow everyone else's rights? You only think about yourself. You and the pathetic others like you. Lonely, sad, people in desperate need. You think nothing of the victims, the people you use and discard to further your own twisted agenda. The truly sad thing is, it's all a delusion. You believe with a flick of a switch you can have the perfect person made to order? Someone to fulfil your every need? It's a fairy tale, Adelle. Nothing more." Olivia leans in closer across the desk, lowering her voice "You tell yourself that Adelle, because you can't stand to face the truth.'

Adelle rises to the bait. "And what truth would that be?"

"That once, not so long ago, you already had that person. A real, true person. A person who loved you and knew you and gave everything for you. And you threw it all away."

And just like that, the encounter has veered away from the morality of the imprinting process and the ethics of the dollhouse. Back on shaky personal ground again.

It takes every ounce of careful self control that Adelle can muster to sit perfectly still and calm in the face of Olivia's angry onslaught. Olivia's latter comments had hit too close to home. Far too close. Adelle pushes them aside, not willing to dignify them by answering Olivia. But the feelings swirling inside Adelle's head can not be contained. She knows only one way to manifest them. In anger, by launching her own bitter accusations in Olivia's direction.

"Do not look at me like that. As if you have never hurt anyone in your life. As if you have never taken someone else's life for your own reasons. As if someone else has never paid the price for accomplishing your own agenda." Adelle spits out angrily.

"It's an unfortunate part of my job, sometimes people get caught in the crossfire, yes." Olivia acknowledges.

"And your profession is so much more honourable than mine?" Adelle asks. "Your needs are legitimate and mine are not? You have the right to decide who lives and dies, who is good and evil, whose life is sacrificed for the greater good?"

"There are laws in this country, Adelle. Laws that need to be enforced, for the protection of every one of us. Surely even you can see that?"

"You're going to hide behind the law?" Adelle asks. "You? Who at nine years of age were already so consumed with blood lust that you picked up a gun and callously shot your own step father?"

Olivia is rendered speechless. Adelle knows she has gone too far. Knows the man was a monster, that he deserved to die. Knows that Olivia's mother lacked sufficient courage to do what needed to be done to protect her daughters. Truth be told, Adelle admires Olivia immensely for her actions.

But Adelle had always believed in fighting fire with fire. Olivia started this war, bitter accusations, personal taunts, bring up things long ago buried and throwing them in Adelle's face for the sole purpose of hurting her. And two could play at that game. Adelle continues "I beg your pardon, I forgot, You didn't actually kill him, though, did you? Couldn't even do the job properly. At least I don't have regrets like that."

Olivia could count on one hand the number of people who knew about that shooting. Who knew how she was torn in two between insidious guilt as she was not a person who took pleasure in hurting others, and deep bitter regret at not finishing the job properly, of failing to protect her family.

"He deserved it" Olivia answers in a child like voice. Gone is the confident, determined, angry woman. Olivia looks so fragile in that moment, so small, so innocent. As if she has somehow been transported back in time, as if she is nine years old all over again. Just a scared little girl with no one to protect her.

"It only it were so simple." Adelle answers softly. "No one gets what they deserve."

"_Olivia, there is something I think you should see." Peter had told her, handing her the documents, A death certificate for her step father. Drug overdose. Olivia nodded her head slightly. She should have known if she waited long enough the worthless piece of shit would self destruct. _

"_Good." She answered, discarding the papers onto the table._

"_Look again, Olivia. Look closer. At the date."_

_Five years ago? He had died five years ago? Still it hasn't clicked in her mind._

"_Olivia?" Peter asks gently "Didn't you tell me, that your step father sends you a card, every year for your birthday? That he sent you one this year, and last year, every year for the last five years __that he's been dead?"_

_Olivia had been speechless. There was only one explanation- Someone else was sending her those cards. _

_That the first cards were from him, Olivia never doubted. It was his style. They were angry. Vicious. Full of taunts about things that only he could know. Things he knew would get under the skin of a nine year old, a ten year old, eleven year old, and so on. That he would continue to haunt her until the day he died, Olivia also never doubted. But now that she looks back, the last few years his tone had changed. His style had changed. How had she never picked up on this before? _

"_Who would do that? Who would even know about your step father, about the cards? Who would want you to think that he was still alive out there?" Peter asked._

_It took only an instant for Olivia to formulate that list in her mind. There were only three people in the world who knew that story about her step father, the shooting, the annual birthday cards. One was Peter, and although her trust in him had been shaken recently- the fact of the matter was she had not known him five years ago. She discounted Peter immediately. That left only two people on her list. Her sister Rachel, and Adelle DeWitt. _


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 5**_

Adelle almost regrets her harsh words when she sees Olivia physically recoil in horror. When she sees the colour drain from Olivia's face. But things have simply gone too far. Olivia has backed her into a corner. There is no way out, Olivia knows that. Olivia must know.

"I want to see Rachel." Olivia announces suddenly, after she has regained her composure.

"Rachel now, is it? I thought you wanted to see Ella?"

"I want to see them both." Olivia clarifies. And while her heart aches for that little girl, alone in the world. It's Rachel that is going to give her answers. Rachel that is going to give her strength. Rachel that is going to fight alongside her to get out of this mess.

"And what about the things I want?" Adelle asks.

"You have everything you want, you told me so yourself. You see something you want, you take it. That's how it's always been. You just haven't figured out yet how to hold onto it. That's the sad thing."

"Your negotiation tactics leave a lot to be desired. You might get further if you refrain from personal insults." Adelle attempts to push Olivia's words away. But she can't deny it, Olivia is getting under her skin. It's enough to make her push the tea cup aside, and reach for the bottle of scotch in the desk drawer. There is painful truth to Olivia's words, and they both know it. With a steady hand Adelle pours herself a drink. In one gulp she swallows the burning liquid from the glass, and pours herself another.

"There wouldn't be a lot of point bringing Rachel up here, Rachel isn't Rachel anymore. She wouldn't even recognise you in her present doll state."

The thought of her sister as one of those mindless dolls makes Olivia cringe. Adelle offers her a glass, and tempted though she is, Olivia shakes her head. She needs to keep her wits about her. It would serve her well for Adelle to drink just a little too much, to loose her edge.

"Make her Rachel." Olivia demands.

Adelle shakes her head. "You know I can't do that."

"You mean you won't. I'm sure you're very capable."

"Quite correct. I could, if I chose, bring Rachel back. I will not."

"Why not? What's it going to cost you? Just to let me speak to her?" Olivia asks.

Adelle marvels at Olivia's nerve. Making demands, asking questions. Adelle knows she should have put a stop to this long ago. She should never have invited Olivia back to her office. "What it's going to cost me is my precious time, the expertise of my staff, and my highly specialised equipment."

"What is it about me speaking to my own sister that frightens you so much?" Olivia asks

"I'm not afraid." Adelle answers. And it sounds sincere, it's believable. Because she means it. Almost. What she means, exactly, is _'It's not Rachel I'm afraid of._'

"Do you really hate me that much?" Olivia asks her. "That you'd keep my sister from me, just to punish me?"

_'Hate you? On the contrary.'_ Adelle admits silently. "It might disappoint you to realise, Miss Dunham, that this has very little to do with you. I made a promise to Rachel."

"What kind of promise?"

"That I would never bring her back."

"Why? That makes no sense!"

"That's between myself and Rachel." Adelle answers cooly.

"So now you're honour bound by your mysterious promise to Rachel? That's total bull shit, Adelle. You don't care one bit about Rachel."

Adelle doesn't answer. The accusation is true, Rachel means little to her. What holds her back has nothing to do with promise to Rachel. And yet it was so easy to hide behind that as a reason. So much more comfortable to converse about Rachel.

"Rachel doesn't want to come back. She begged me to take her away. She pleaded with me, pathetically, desperately, to take her away."

"Take her away from what?" Olivia demands, growing fast frustrated.

Adelle pauses for a moment. "You really don't know, do you?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Olivia demands, standing angrily to her feet, knocking the chair to the ground with a loud thud.

"What you don't know won't hurt you." Adelle tells Olivia cryptically as she reaches for the phone. "I think this conversation is over."

Desperately, one last time, Olivia pleads. "Just let me speak to Ella, just once. What harm can it do?"

"What good can it do? It would only upset the child, she is settled, leave her be."

"She is just a little girl, Adelle."

"So you keep telling me. And I keep telling you, she is well taken care of."

Olivia opens her mouth to speak, but there is only a hollow, dry, void of silence.

"Something to say, Agent Dunham?"

Adelle waits. For the accusation to come from Olivia's lips. For Olivia to say '_Why should I believe you? What do you know about taking care of a child? What about the seven children who died all those years ago, on your watch, as a direct result of illegal experimental treatments of your division of the Rossum corporation?'_

But Olivia says nothing. She only shakes her head.

Adelle finds it unsettling Olivia's sudden reluctance to speak. This is war. This is Olivia, who waltzed into her office, refusing to tiptoe around her, refusing to tremble in fear even though she must have known she was defeated. Olivia who held nothing back, making personal insults and snide remarks. Adelle hadn't hesitated in throwing Olivia's past mistakes in her face. Hadn't thought twice.

And yet Olivia refuses to play that game. And it isn't because she is afraid of Adelle. She isn't even heeding Adelle's advice to refrain from personal insults to get on her good side. There is unmistakable pity in Olivia Dunham's eyes. Pathetic pity holding her back from speaking her mind. It makes Adelle feel like she is being suffocated.

"I'll have someone fetch you and take you to the chair." Adelle declares.

"No. Adelle. Please. Lock me up if you must, but there is no need to turn me into one of those mindless dolls."

"I was only thinking of your comfort. Time will pass like the blink of an eye."

"No. Thank you."

"Suit yourself." Adelle knows it's dangerous to give in to Olivia, to let her authority slip. She knows it's dangerous to give Olivia too much time to think. What is she going to do? Keep Olivia jailed in a room? For how long? This whole situation is insane. But Adelle hasn't the heart to refuse Olivia anymore. "I'll make some arrangements for you." Adelle assures her.

_Some years ago_

"_You really don't like her, do you?" Olivia asked Charlie as they sat on surveillance outside the Rossum corporation. _

"_You can't trust people like her." Charlie answered softly. _

"_She saved my life." Olivia reminded him._

"_I'm sure there was something in it for her." Charlie responded._

"_She is one of us." Olivia insisted. "Give her a break."_

"_No, not her." He answered, voice dripping with disdain. "She is not one of us. And it's dangerous to think that way."_

"_She works for us, she is an undercover agent." Olivia reminded him._

"_Look at her, the way she fits into that world, effortlessly, flawlessly." He pointed out._

"_Isn't that the idea? To fit in? To be above suspicion?" Olivia asked._

"_No. It's not possible. The reason she seems to fit so perfectly in that world, is because she does fit. She belongs there. She is one of them, playing at being one of us. Don't forget that. If you only ever listen to one piece of my advice, make it this piece- Do not ever let your guard down with her."_

Present Day

It never ceases to amaze Adelle, the way Ella's face lights up when she sees her. The way she runs enthusiastically into her arms. The way Ella is waiting on the front steps for Adelle's car to pull into the drive. Adelle had wondered how long it would last? How long until Ella caught up with the rest of the world and realised there was nothing worth loving in Adelle?

Perhaps the day had come sooner than Adelle anticipated. Her heart sinks as she realises that, for the first time, Ella isn't waiting on the steps to run into her arms. Apprehension fills her as she enters the house, calling Ella's name. She hears the small footsteps running towards her before she sees the child. She crouches down to Ella's level, pulling the girl into a tight embrace.

"I got a lollipop" The little girl announces proudly.

It is then that Adelle looks up to the two men standing in her house. She stands slowly to face them, Ella clinging to her side.

"Ella, go and tidy your room." She orders the child, as she disentangles herself from the child's loving grasp.

"But it's already tidy." Ella protests.

"Now, Ella!" Adelle shouts at the child. And it rips through her heart, the way Ella's face falls, the way she turns and runs up the stairs as tears are forming in her eyes. Adelle tells herself she will apologise to Ella later. First things first.

"You do not, ever, come into my house uninvited." Adelle tells them.

"We have asked you, repeatedly, to bring the child to see us." The taller of the two men answers her.

"She is fine, as you see. There is no need for you to see her."

"She has made a remarkable recovery." He concedes. "Thanks to the technology of the Rossum Corporation. And now Rossum wishes to run further tests, for our research purposes."

"She is a human being, a child, not a guinea pig for your research purposes." _She is MY child_, Adelle thinks to herself, _And you are not getting your hands on her. _

The man laughs. "Is this Adelle De Witt talking? Head of the Dollhouse? The house full of human beings to use and abuse .."

"There is no abuse in my house." Adelle insists.

He waves his hand dismissively, he cares nothing for the ethics of the Dollhouse. "I will put this simply. If you wish for the child to continue to receive treatments to keep her alive and healthy, you will bring her to our facility, tomorrow, ten O'clock."


End file.
